"You don't just wear the mask for yourself. It's for your wife... your parents... even for -- one day -- your children. There are animals out there. And when it comes to family, we can't always be there to defend them. But the mask will." DC Comics Green Arrow (Identity Crisis Vol 1 #6)
Parents it is time to take off the capes and the masks! Just as the quote above implies, we often try to protect ourselves and our families by putting on the masks of super parent, acting like we can do it all or that we have it all together. I am saying its time to Let It Go! ( in my best Frozen singing voice) The pressures of trying to be Instagram ready or PTA approved are driving us crazy, literally. A 2017 childtrends.org article shared, that 1 in 5 children are living with at least one severely depressed parent. It is time for us parents to unite in our averageness. ( okay, I don't think that's a word but you get it, keeping things average :) )
I am currently reading the book "Beginner's Pluck" by Liz Forkin Bohannon. It is not a book centered around parenting, but is has definitely impacted the way I am mentally approaching parenting. So much so, that it has reawakened the blogging bug in me. I will be writing a few post based on a couple of the chapters of this lovely book. Today's topic is, Own your Average.
Liz shares, " When you own your average, you'll start to understand that every human on Planet Earth is a unique combination and sequence of The Divine and carries an equally valuable, one of a kind, never-going- to -see- it- again brand of magic." Then she really drives it home by saying, " When you start believing this about yourself, you will start to channel all the energy you recover from worrying about how you compare into a beautiful vision of collective ambition- dreams that will raise the tide, not just for yourself but for others too." All of this is just on page 33!!!
What I took away from this is, we as parents try so hard to do "all the right things" in hopes of not messing up our kids. In this pursuit of all the right things, we sometimes forget who we uniquely are and put on the masks of super parent. The load of super parent is heavy. How can we live the intentional life we dream of living and modeling to our kids when we are barely making it through the day carrying this heavy load? I invite you to lighten the load of: making sure the kids have home made costumes, working 10 jobs in order to ensure the kids can play in all of the sport and activities, or going to all of the PTA meetings just to not get judge as a lazy parent. Just be who you are uniquely meant to be. When we own our average as parents, it allows us to have the energy to build our family around the things that make us unique, not the things that our parents have convinced us are right for us. Join me throwing off the unnecessary weight of trying to win the super parent award. The award that really doesn't have a prize attached to it, besides stress.
#Ownyouraverage #Beginner'sPluckforparents #Thrivingwithbaby
